The Sugar Engineers

Sugar factory rules of thumb for equipment sizing

The following equipment sizing guide is based on sugar factory installations in Southern Africa, and is adapted from MJ Reid, South African Sugar Factory Plant Installations 1995, Sugar Milling Reasearch Institute, Durban.

The factory capacity in tonnes cane per hour [tch] or tonnes fibre per hour [tfh] used in the calculations to prepare this data is the nominal capacity of the factory, not the design capacity nor the maximum capacity nor current actual capacity, but the estimated normal capacity.

In the histograms below the vertical axis shows the relative frequency with which the parameter in question appears. The horizontal axis shows the various brackets into which the parameter is placed. For example in the cane prepartion section below, 24% of the factories had a total specific cane prep power of less than 62kW/tfh. In the next bracket 27% of the factories had total specific powers between 62 and 86kW/tfh. The next bracket; 86 to 110kW/tfh accounts for 36% of the factories and so on.

Cane Preparation Equipment

The total specific power in kW/tfh. That is knife power plus shredder power divided by the tons of fibre processed per hour

caneprep.gif
MinimumAverageMaximum
4584.12165

Diffusers

The specific screen area in m2/tfh.

diffuser
MinimumAverageMaximum
6.610.714.9

Milling Tandems in diffuser factories

The specific total mill power in kW/tfh.

mills in diffuser factories
MinimumAverageMaximum
38.360.3110

Milling Tandems in milling factories

The specific total mill power in kW/tfh.

millpower
MinimumAverageMaximum
70104.4164

Juice Heaters

Total heating surface per tch [m2/tch]

juiceheaters
MinimumAverageMaximum
4.298.013.1

Trayless Clarifiers

Total volumetric capacity per tch [m3/tch]

sriclarifiers
MinimumAverageMaximum
0.751.141.73

Tray Type Clarifiers

Total volumetric capacity per tch [m3/tch]

trayclarifiers
MinimumAverageMaximum
1.142.043.10

Rotary Vacuum Filters

Total effective area per tch [m2/tch]

vacuumfilters
MinimumAverageMaximum
0.190.490.77

Multiple Effect Evaporators

Total heating surface area per tch [m2/tch]

multiple effect
MinimumAverageMaximum
24.538.665.5

Vacuum Pans

Total capacity per tch [m3/tch]

vacuum pans
MinimumAverageMaximum
1.251.521.90

Crystallisers

Total capacity per tch [m3/tch]

crystalliser
MinimumAverageMaximum
2.204.045.40

Boiler Plant

Total capacity per tch [kg of steam/tch]

boiler
MinimumAverageMaximum
5167781088

Power Plant

Total capacity per tch [kW/tch]

power
MinimumAverageMaximum
30.051.188.9